[Marxism] Sadr's Subtle Defiance of "Demonstration Elections"

[Yoshie Furuhashi <furuhashi.1@xxxxxxx>]

"Sadr's Subtle Defiance of 'Demonstration Elections'" (The January
30, 2005 elections in Iraq are the textbook definition of
"demonstration elections."  Unlike Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani,
who issued "a fatwa saying all Shiia men and women have an obligation
to vote in the upcoming election," the Moktada al-Sadr faction
"uttered not a single word about the vote" at Friday Prayers,
according to the New York Times, foreshadowing "a less than
overwhelming voter turnout in many parts of Iraq."  The Times, doing
a job expected of the corporate media in "demonstration elections,"
industriously tries to create an impression that the Sadr faction are
against democracy itself, solely by virtue of their quiet refusal to
browbeat their "vast following" into embracing the elections on the
30th.  Needless to say, the idea that it is people's right to
evaluate whether or not an election is free, fair, and democratic and
that boycotting an unfree, unfair, and undemocratic election is a
time-honored tactic of democrats everywhere is unspeakable in the
corporate media) -- FULL TEXT:
<http://montages.blogspot.com/2005/01/sadrs-subtle-defiance-of-demonstration.html>.
--
Yoshie

* Critical Montages: <http://montages.blogspot.com/>
* Greens for Nader: <http://greensfornader.net/>
* Bring Them Home Now! <http://www.bringthemhomenow.org/>
* OSU-GESO: <http://www.osu-geso.org/>
* Calendars of Events in Columbus:
<http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/calendar.html>,
<http://www.freepress.org/calendar.php>, & <http://www.cpanews.org/>
* Student International Forum: <http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/>
* Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osudivest.org/>
* Al-Awda-Ohio: <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Al-Awda-Ohio>
* Solidarity: <http://www.solidarity-us.org/>

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